This seminar arises from the modest proposal that literature and visualtexts are no longer unlikely bedfellows â€" or are they? The work of W. G.Sebald in particular exemplifies the vitality of the relation between theimage and language and the possibilities of such hybrid texts. AcrossSebaldâ€™s novels and poetry, it would be violence to separate the texts intophotographs and language; these works destabilize the boundaries of genreand invite us to revise our reading practices. Where literary studies onceseemed firmly entrenched in language and literature, the arrival of visualstudies continues to change the face of literary studies and departments ofliterature. Literary studies, however, has a solid idea of what it is, andvisual studies is far less certain. This seminar seeks to think aboutvisual studies and its implications for literature; the discipline ofliterary studies; those who identify with departments of literature,especially interdisciplinary departments; the shape of literaturedepartments themselves; the ways in which scholars of theory and literaturethink about visual texts; and the pursuit of questions that embrace bothliterary and visual texts. Papers that think about visuality, perception,the image, visual texts, language, and literature in productive ways;papers that consider the disciplinary and institutional implications of therise of visual studies and interdisciplinary work; and any other foraysinto the ambiguous and amorphous territory that has emerged out of thecombination of visual and literary studies are all welcome.